Long Distance
by thetimewalker2237
Summary: An interdimensional vilian steals Extremis, but as Ironman tries to get it back, he is sent through time and space to the world protected by the Justice League. Will the Villian take over the multiverse? Will Tony get home? What happened during those 5 years we never saw? Read and find out!
1. Meta physics 101

**This is my first fanfic, so we'll see how it goes. This is a crossover between Ironman Armored Adventures and Young Justice. I'm really surprised that I haven't seen a crossover between these two yet. For continuity's sake this is set after the episode where Ironman meets Jean Grey (because I can't find the next episode online), and during the five-year hiatus on Young Justice. I'll try to fill in a few of the mysteries that the show has left. Anyway, enjoy, and review.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ironman or Young Justice. Seriously do we actually have to say that? I do own the villain I made up, however. **

_Riiiiiiiiinnnnnnggggg!_

"Oh, _[bleep]!_" said Tony, as the late bell rang, "I'm late for physics!"

He raced down the hallway, and made it to the classroom as a teacher that looked an awful lot like Michio Kaku was writing some big mathematical thing on the board.

"Late again, Mr. Stark," said the professor without even turning to look back, "That's what, the fourth time this month?"

"Sorry professor," Tony apologized, embarrassed "I'll try not to let it happen."

"Well, since you're already up, Can you tell me what I've just written on the board?" The professor asked. The equation on the board was filled with Greek letters, numbers and some unrecognizable squiggles.

Tony replied calmly, "That's the equation for the Phased Multi-Verse Theory. It states that every action that can happen does happen and forms a separate universe where the alternate action occurred. The probability of a certain action happening is also the fraction of universes in which the action happened. Oh and by the way you made a little typo. The quotient should be R not Q. If you left it that way you get infinity."

The professor stood flabbergasted. He stared at the equation for some time and finally conceded his error "Yes you're right Tony," as he went to fix the equation. Tony sat down with his head held high as the other students stared at him trying to figure out how he knew what the heck that stuff even was.

_Later:_

"How did you know all that stuff in physics, man?" Rhody asked Tony over the phone, "I have to study this stuff for four hours each night just to comprehend it, well you probably could've given the lecture yourself."

Tony replied from high over Manhattan, "Come on Rhody, I read that kind of stuff for fun." Tony was patrolling the city is Ironman while Rhody a.k.a. War Machine was stuck at home studying metaphysics final the next day.

"Shouldn't you be studying right now?" asked Rhody.

"I know that stuff inside and out," replied Tony, "do you really think I need to -" Tony was cut off right there, as a blur plummeted to earth right in front of him. "I'm going to have to call you back," Tony said and then hung up. Ironman dived to catch the falling object that as he approached turned out to be a person. He caught the person about 200 feet above Broadway Street.

"Thank you" said the man, whose hair looked a bit like a flame.

"No problem," replied Ironman. He looked up, "where did you fall from anyw-" he was cut off midsentence again, this time by the man's fist connecting with his chin. The force was enough to make him drop the person. The plummeted 200 feet to the ground, smashing a car that was parked in front of the theater. A few seconds later, the man got up, and brushed off his black jacket.

"What?" Asked Ironman, to no one in particular, as he observed the strange spectacle. Just then, S.H.E.I.L.D. hovercraft approached from behind and encircled the mystery man.

"Attention thief," said a voice on one of the hovercrafts loudspeakers, "hands in the air or we shoot! Return the stolen property now!" The man calmly raised his hands above his head, then quickly slammed his left hand into some device on his right wrist. There was a blinding flash. When the light dissipated and sight returned to Tony's eyes, the hovercrafts are all disabled and the mystery man was nowhere to be seen. He quickly descended to assess the damage.

"Is everyone all right?" Ironman asked a S.H.E.I.L.D. agent getting out of a hovercraft.

"We're good here," replied the agent, "EMP wave. Knocked out the electronics. That was it"

"Who was that guy anyway? What does S.H.E.I.L.D. wants with him?" Asked Ironman

"I've got no idea who the guy is. But he stole some very high tech bio-enhancements from the Helicarrier," the agent replied.

"Extremis?" Ironman was pretty sure he already knew the answer.

"That and some gamma tech," replied the agent.

"_[bleep]_! I got catch this guy, now!" Ironman said as he took off, "Computer, identify the energy signature of the blast and see if you can track it."

Scanning replied the feminine computer voice, scanning complete. Energy signature located. A map of New York City was displayed on his view screen. There was a bright yellow dot over Times Square.

"Uh-oh," I meant that off towards Times Square. There is a huge crowd of people there that were all gawking at him. The villain's obvious red hair could not be seen in the crowd.

"Come on, where are you?" Ironman asked himself, "Computer do a localized scan for the same energy signature."

Scanning the computer augmented his video input with radiological data. They're very bright signature was reading from a person in the crowd.

"They you are," said Ironman. The move towards the signature, but instead of the redhead Caucasian man that he had caught earlier, readings indicated a bald African man, but face was still the same. "Crafty little guy. Just give back the stuff you stole."

"Well, now. I see there's no need to keep up this disguise, then," said the mystery villain. His features changed slowly. His red fiery hair grew back into place. The dark skin changed into a strange blood red color. He closed his eyes for a moment. His eyes were a nice shade of blue, but when he opened them, the entire eye was a strange shade of orange, and the pupil had become a small slit. But the most obvious and disturbing thing were two horns that grew out of the side of his for head. He looked a bit like an old-fashioned devil minus the pitchfork and the forked tail. The crowds quickly dispersed.

"I did not see that coming," Ironman replied. He blasted the demon with a repulsur ray. The demon just stood there absorbing the attack. His mouth opened and a blast of fire erupted from it. Ironman barely dodged the assault and bombarded the assailant with several mini missiles.

The demon glanced at the missiles and just said "Tick." Demon vanished into thin air as the missiles collide with each other and exploded where he was 1 millisecond before.

"Tock" Ironman heard from behind him. The demon had reappeared just behind him and slashed at him with a red blade attached to his forearm. Ironman went flying 20 feet that street until he collided with the asphalt and bounced another 20 feet.

_Beep! _

The sound came from the device on the demon's arm that had been transformed into a sword.

"Oh, looks like it's time for me to leave," the Demon said with a smile. He motioned toward the device.

"Oh no you don't!" Said Ironman. Thrusters on full, he launched himself straight into the demon, grabbing the device in one hand, crushing it. There's a huge burst of light and then, nothing.

**Insert theme song here.**

**Yeah I didn't get to the young justice parts yet, but they're coming. The "demon" is supposed to be the main villain of the series I made up called "Adventure in the Sky." He the fire-breathing, time-traveling alien. I'll have to get that up on fiction press at some point. Anyway please review.**


	2. The Squirrel that Ate New York

**Ok, so it took a while to get this up. Sorry. Intense writers-block. (Though I'm not sure how long a **_**while **_**is on this site)**

**I tried to catch up on some of the shows before I updated this. And I have a few things to say (spoiler alert if you haven't seen these yet):**

**1. Tony found his dad. Hurray for him. And Doom was using interdimensional portals that I could've used to explain this story.**

**2. I KNEW IT! I knew Aqualad was a spy! And of course they couldn't have killed off Artemis!**

**And now after watching these, the story I had planned makes even less sense. I was thinking of changing it, but this story is too good. So, screw continuity! Here is my story, how it was intended:**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Ironman or Young Justice. Why would anyone ever think I owned any of this stuff? I mean, seriously****.**

"Ow, my head!" Said the so-called demon as he woke up groggily, with the same headache that always accompanied his interdimensional jumps. There was green grass under him and he could hear Earth birds chirping.

"Not where I was wanting to go," he mumbled to himself. He had been exploring the multi-verse for years and he hadn't been this off since he had first started figuring out how to use is stolen time-travel device. Next to him, something stirred. It was a metal coated man who had both tried to save him and stop him in the last universe he had "visited."

"Time to go," he said to himself. But as he looked down at his arm, he saw that the Beta-Cronus, his stolen prototype "time machine," was completely busted. "F_[Bleep]_!" He said aloud.

Ironman start to get up. "My head! Argh!" he grumbled to himself. Then he noticed the demon hovering over him. "You. (ow) what did you do to my head?" he asked the demon.

"Just a little interdimensional vortex is all," said the demon nonchalantly. His mind was racing, trying to think of an effective escape strategy, when he remembered the mutagenic devices he had stolen. He reached down and grabbed both devices: a gamma-ray gun and dart gun filled with vials of Extremis. He looked around for something and his eyes landed on a squirrel. He proceeded to shoot squirrel with the Extremis serum, and then fired the ray gun at it.

"What? Oh Cr_[bleep]_! Why'd you have to go and do that, eh, um, whatever-your-name-is!" Ironman complained as he tried to get himself up.

"It's just a little distraction, that's all. Oh, and, Just for reference, you can call me Transcendent," he said to Ironman as he was leaving, allowing the monster that was forming to preoccupy the hero's attention.

At this moment, the squirrel was cringing with the most intense pain imaginable from the two extreme mutagens mixing in its blood. All its fur fell off revealing a now green skin. Its size started to increase. It's already sharp teeth grew sharper and longer. Its ears shrunk, and if eyes turned a blood red. An extra set of limbs popped out of its back which turned into wings. But the strangest thing of all was the tail. The tail split into eight and at the end of each one, a new mouth and set of eyes grew. It wound up at a staggering 50 feet tall.

"Sh_[Bleep]_!" Ironman said as he was facing down the giant squirrel. He shot repulser beams at it, but the only effect that had was to anger the squirrel. The Squirrel charged, nine sets of mouths bearing at him.

Meanwhile, Kaldor, Artemis, and Dick were walking through Central Park, waiting for Wally to show up; when they saw a giant squirrel appear through the trees.

"I thought this was supposed to be our day off," Artemis said, annoyed. They quickly found a porta-potty, suited up, alerted the League (just in case), and went to tackle the giant beast. Just another average day.

When they reached the giant monster, some red and yellow guy they didn't recognize was already attacking it. He shot lasers out of his hands at the beasts which had no effect. The beasts tried to bite the man with one of its nine heads. But the metal man flew out of the way just in time and then punched the beast right in the muzzle.

Artemis shot an arrow into the beasts' eye to try to get its attention. The beasts noticed and charged straight for her. This gave Robin enough time to get behind the beast and throw explosive bird-a-rangs into one of its other eyes. Ironman and Aqua-Lad had flanked the creature. Seeing it was surrounded, one of the creature's heads, well, uh, belched, releasing noxious green fumes. It flew away, protected by the vile smokescreen.

"Is everyone okay?" Aqua-lad asked of his teammates, as the fumes started to dissipate.

"I'm okay," replied Artemis and Robin. They then took notice of the new hero that had fought alongside them.

"Do you mind explaining what the H_[bleep] _that was… um, what was your name again?" Robin inquired of their new ally

"The name's Ironman," he replied, "And as for the squirrel, well, uh, this guy named Transcendent stole some mutagenic tech from S.H.E.I.L.D. We fought. There was a bright light and I got knocked out. I woke up here and he used stolen tech on a squirrel and made that monster. Now who are you guys?"

Before anyone could answer, Wally, in his flashy Kid-Flash outfit, appeared out of nowhere in a cloud of dust he kicked up. "Hey, a new guy," said Wally, "So what'd I miss?"

"Giant squirrel attacking New York City," said Robin, as he pointed at the beast flying away.

(Author note: is there NYC in DC Universes? If no, then this is Metropolis. While I'm talking, I'd like to apologize for using a 9-headed monster squirrel. I couldn't think of anything good to use. )

"Oh, cool!" exclaimed Kid-Flash, "Well enough standing around! Let's go get it!" He sped away in the direction the monster flew off in.

"Who was that?" asked Ironman.

"We'll explain later," replied Aqua-lad, "Right now, we have to stop that monster from harming civilians. Are you going to assist us?" He spoke with authority.

"Fine" Ironman replied.

"You can fly. Can you get that creature down to an altitude we can get at it?" asked Aqua-lad.

"Can do," replied Ironman, as he sped off into the sky. He flew ahead of the beast and fired a mini-missile at the creature. One of the heads swallowed thee missile, and the missile came barreling out of a different mouth at him. The suit was able to take the explosion without much problem. Despite the possible damage, the tactic worked. The squirrel now wanted to eat Ironman and tried to bite his butt off.

"Come on, follow the tasty Ironman," Tony murmured to himself as he realized he was bait. He dived steeply, the squirrel hot on his heels. It seemed each head had a different trick, as a different head shot out a long, sticky tongue that ensnared Ironman.

"Oh, gross!" he exclaimed. Luckily, he had gotten the beast low enough for the others to assist. Artemis shot an arrow through the beast's tongue, severing it, and enraging the beast with pain.

"Thanks!" Ironman thanked the archer, as he returned to fighting the monster.

"No prob.," Artemis responded, as she fired another arrow with a tether tied to it. Robin also got his grappling line on the creature, and they tied the beast down to some trees. Kid-Flash run up one of the lines, and "danced" on top off the monster.

"Hey, Squirrel-thing!" Kid' taunted, "Look here! Munchies!" He was the next in line to play bait. The Squirrel-thing took the bait, and charged Kid'. Kid' dodged in a blink, making the beast bite itself. It let out a huge scream of pain. So by this point the monster was extremely mad. A head whose trick we haven't seen yet started to breathe fire like a dragon and burned through the ropes that were holding it. Another head spat sticky gunk at Robin, sticking him to the tree. With that, the beast escaped full speed for the city, Kid-Flash still on its back.

"Go get that thing! I'll be fine!" ordered Robin, still gunked to the tree. With the go-ahead, Artemis shot another tethered arrow at the beast, barely missing Kid's butt, which prompted a bad joke to his girlfriend I do not feel like repeating. Aqua-lad grabbed ahold of the line as the squirrel fled, dragging both of them into the air.

The beast was really P_[bleep]_ed off at this point. It kept trying to eat Kid-flash, but he was too fast. Ironman kept blasting the beast, and Artemis and Aqua-lad were assaulting the creature from beneath. In an effort to free itself, the squirrel went into a death-roll, flinging the heroes into the sky, and landed on a skyscraper to lick its wounds.

Ironman dived to catch Artemis, since she was closest. Aqua-lad was able to break his fall into a small pond, but Kid' pretty much belly-flopped on some pavement.

"I'm OK!" Kid' was able to say before he blacked-out.

Artemis and Ironman flew towards the beast. Artemis dropped to the roof of the building, barraging the monster with explosive arrows, while Ironman used the omni-blast in a hope of subduing the creature.

'Power reserves depleted' alerted the computed. He had put all his energy into the assault. With no power, his armor fell out of the sky.

The squirrel saw its chance. It charged through the archery assault toward the fallen hero. Its sharp teeth pierced his metal helmet. The beast ripped the faceplate off, revealing Tony's terrified face. He screamed as the beast tried to eat him.

"Oh no you don't!" Artemis called as she shot her highest yield arrow down the beast's gullet. The explosion's flames escaped through the nine mouths as the beast screamed in pain. Then the beast slumped over, dead.

"Thanks, uh, what was your name again?" Tony asked his savior.

"The name's Artemis," she replied. She picked up his severed faceplate, "You dropped this."

Tony felt his face to find his face exposed. "Cr_[bleep]_!" as he turned around, trying not to show his face. Artemis chuckled.

_Now to interrupt this awkward moment:_

Transcendent walked along a coast fiddling with the busted device on his arm.

"How in this world am I going to fix this thing?" he grumbled to himself. Suddenly, a black, diamond shaped submersible surfaced slightly out to sea. A man wearing an oddly shaped helmet that couldn't possibly fit any human head emerged from the ship.

"We saw what you did in the park," the person said in a synthetically deepened voice, "We also know that you need help fixing your traveling device. I suggest we work together."

"Not like I have much of a choice," Transcendent said as he boarded the Manta-Flier, "Whose 'we'?"

"The Light."

**Once again I apologize for the long, drawn-out fight scene with a giant, nine-headed squirrel.**

**I also realized while writing that Artemis has no secret identity. Actually, any villain with a brain could figure out any of their identities just by looking at their faces.**

**I hope the connection I'm trying to make between those two is obvious enough.**

**Next chapter will come eventually. Please review! **


	3. lame bridge to rest of story

**Sorry for the wait. Writer's block here with good ideas elsewhere. I still don't know exactly what's going to happen, but we'll see.**

**I'm just wondering, did anyone realize that Artemis is named after the Greek goddess of **_**fertility.**_** All the pictures of her have, like, a hundred boobs! Now who would name their kid after that? Granted its better than Medusa, or something, but still. **

**And what the bleep is Spitfire! I see that all over YJ fanfics. Someone please tell me.**

**Anyway; I don't own Young Justice or Ironman, otherwise this would be on TV instead of Fanfiction.**

New York City, July 14 1:56 EST

As Ironman wielded his facemask back on, Artemis pondered the giant squirrel they had defeated.

"So what are we gona do with it now?" she thought out loud.

"Hm. I've never actually thought about that. I guess S.H.E.I.L.D. probably does something with 'em," Tony offered.

"Shield?" Artemis had no idea what that could be, "What's that?"

Tony was a little surprised a crime-fighter like wouldn't know what S.H.E.I.L.D. was. "It the Strategic Homeland something with an E Intelligence and Logistic Division. Good Guy Super Spies, basically."

Sometime about then the red-headed speedster most of come-to, as he dashed up the side of the building, and stared at the dead squirrel thingy.

"You stopped it then. Cool!" he said in a very fast pace, then he looked at Iron-man, "So who are you anyway? Where'd you get the cool tech? And how the h_[bleep!]_ did a giant nine-headed squirrel pop-up out of nowhere?"

Ironman had to take a second to decipher what the speedster had said so quickly, even though, in truth, he was talking slowly for him. "Well, um, I'm Ironman. I made it. And some weird demon guy stole some tech and made that beast so he could get away."

"So you're saying a demon made a giant squirrel-monster, just to get away unnoticed?" Wally asked skeptically.

"That's what the demon said," Ironman answered.

Wally's skepticism turned into a smile, "Good enough for me!" he looked at something behind Ironman and called, "You guys can come out now! He's a good guy!"

Behind Ironman, a large, red, sci-fi-esque ship appeared out of nowhere. It landed next to the jumbo squirrel and oddly dressed teens filed out, the two other team-mates he had seen with them. They all stared at the creature.

A tough looking boy with a red S on his shirt spoke-up, "you didn't leave anything for me to hit?" he said sarcastically.

"Sorry," the blond archer-ess apologized jokingly.

Not surprisingly, Ironman felt a little overwhelmed at the crowd. "Um, ok, so who are you guys anyway?"

After the obligatory introductions, and Tony explaining everything again, with more details, they all pondered what could explain all this weirdness.

Zatanna noticed something with her powers. "I'm detecting a magical field around you, a latent kind, like you've been through a mystical portal of some kind."

Tony was skeptical of magic. "Mystical portals?" after Zatanna glanced at him he stopped his argument. Anyone on this team could obviously fight. Plus, she was _hot! _

"You don't just have mystical juju coming off you," Robin added, staring at a holographic screen coming from his wrist, "I'm picking up Zeta waves and Chroniton particles coming off of you. And something else I can't figure out."

"Mind if I look?" Ironman asked, glad to have some real, scientific data. The waves on the screen didn't look familiar immediately, and then he remembered the physics lesson from the morning. "Phased Leptons!"

"Aren't those theoretical?" asked Kid-Flash. Despite his lady-killer charm, he was a science geek at heart.

"Apparently not anymore," Robin said, indicating the scientifically revolutionary data.

"It all makes sense now!" Ironman said, "Transcendent must have opened a wormhole into a different universe to escape, and dragged me in with him!" then he realized that he was trapped in a different universe, which can really kill someone's spirits. "That means I'm stuck here. And I won't be able to get home." He slumped down. He might never see his friends again. Rhodey. Pepper…

Then Artemis placed a hand on his shoulder, "Don't worry, "she said calmingly, "We will help you get home."

"But how," Aqua-lad asked, "I do not believe that anyone on the planet has that kind of technology."

"Well one person obviously does," Rocket said non-chalantly, "The guy that sent you here. We find this Transcendent guy and get him to send you back."

"But wouldn't he just leave this universe after he realized that Ironman had come with him?" Megan asked.

"No. I don't think he can," Ironman said at his realization, "in our battle I think I might have broken his device. He might not be able to leave!"

"That settles it then," said Miss Martian, "We find that demon and get him to send you back home."

The rest of the group agreed. The Hunt was on.

**OK. This chapter sucks. I admit it. I thought it was going somewhere, but it wasn't. So I will just use it as a bridge to the next part, and as a way to tell you, my readers, that this story isn't dead. Just bad writers block. If anyone has suggestions, questions, anything, please review and tell me. **


	4. The plot thickens

**I finally had some good inspiration for this story! I sincerely hope this is better than the last chapter!**

**I'm gona be changing my strategy a bit now. I'm gona try shorter chapters, more often and see if the ideas flow better that way. Let's hope!**

**No snappy disclaimer. I don't even own this computer. Do you think I could own a TV show? And now the story:**

"Now that is an interesting plan," Transcendent said, "Why are you letting me in on your plans, Mr. Savage, was it?"

"Yes," the scared man answered the demons 2nd question, "I'm telling you this because we need you to pull it off."

"And what would you need little old me for?" the demon asked sarcastically.

"Because you've caught the League's attention," Savage answered, the mastermind's plans forming in words, "I mean, making a giant monster just to distract 1 hero for you to get away would get anyone's attention."

"Had to think on the fly," the alien answered truthfully.

"But that is exactly what we need," Savage replied.

"A giant Squirrel?"

"A distraction," Savage answered his confusion, "An over-extravagant distraction. Our plan is rather long term, so we need something to keep the leagues attention until it comes to fruition."

"So you want me to what, wage war on your heroes?" the red alien was still skeptical.

"Maybe not that direct," said Savage, "Since that 'Ironman' seems to be stuck here because of you, the League is going to be looking hard for you anyway. You just have to _look_ like your planning something big to grab their attention."

"Hmm," he started formulating his own plan in his head, "That kid will probably think I was going to build a gamma bomb with this stuff, so maybe that's what I'll do. That should grab their attention."

"Good," Savage said, "While you are trying to destroy the world, we'll get that wormhole device of yours working, so you can go home. And you will have what-ever resources you need from the Light."

"But what if my plan works and I take over?" the demon asked curiously.

"Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, won't we?" Savage replied slyly, "Give us a good year or so, or you won't be going home."

Transcendent stared at him for a minute, then said, "I like that plan."

**Short but sweet chapter. This and the last one just kind of get the rest of the plot rolling. Which is what I need to get my mind working. I think this could explain the 5 year gap in the story line.**

**Any ideas of any kind would be helpful, so please review! And hopefully the next chapter will be up soon!**


	5. I'm Back!

**Merry Christmas and other assorted holidays! So I was wrong about getting back to this story quickly! I am ****SUPER**** sorry I have neglected this story so badly! I will try to make up for it with a super action plot line.**

**No snappy disclaimer. I own literally nothing.**

Dick ran as fast as he could, enemy fire raining down around him. He managed to stay unscathed as he ran for a random structure that would hopefully keep him from getting taken out. He swiftly clambered over the wall and fell into the relatively protected area behind, finally able to catch his breath. He was the last man standing, and he knew that the ones after him would get him sooner or later. Aqua-lad and Kid' had somehow gone down almost as soon as the fighting started. Zatanna and SB had held off a lot longer but somehow the opposition had managed to take the half-Kryptonian and the teenage witch (not Sabrina) out of the fight. How Robin was the last to endure was anyone's guess, although that wasn't what his mind was worrying about at the moment. It was concerned with not get taken down, or at least how to takeout as much of the opposition as he could before it was too late.

"Nowhere left to run," the male voice of one of the pursuers called from behind him.

"We're gona get you," a female voice also taunted him, "It's just a matter of time."

_Not if he had anything to say about it!_ He kept at it, running quickly, dodging all the enemy fire with nimbleness honed over a life of trapeze and crime-fighting. He tried to attack his pursuers, firing a special orange compound that would have ended the confrontation had it hit its mark. Sadly it missed its mark, the pursuers easily evading the frontal assault. After a few more seconds of running, the pursuers had chased Robin right into their trap. The cord laid carefully on the ground now entangled Robin's leg, hoisting him awkwardly upside-down.

"Well it looks like this game of cat and mouse is over," said the female pursuer. A bolt flew strait at Robin's forehead. His head rocked back from the force, the grass below now being stained by the red liquid dripping from his head.

"Hey no fair using trap-lines!" Dick shouted at Artemis, who in response cut him down, letting him fall on his face. A computerized voice from the PA system in The Cave announced "RED TEAM IS VICTORIOUS!" as Robin wiped the dirt and red paint off of himself.

"You think the baddies are gona play fair?' Artemis asked, sarcastically.

"This wasn't combat practice! This was supposed to be a friendly game of paintball!" Dick said, angry at Artemis for cheating, sure, but more miffed at losing so humiliatingly. Meanwhile, Tony, who had also been chasing him, was holding back laughter after Robin landed on his face. The other members of the team had started to arrive on the scene to see Artemis with a triumphant, prideful look on her face over the pouting Robin, red-paint dripping down his face.

"Now that's my girl," Wally walked up saying, covered in red paint, "Took us all out by herself!" He leaned into Artemis's face and kissed her. As he pulled away, Artemis noticed everyone was trying desperately to hold back laughter.

"What?" Artemis asked, clueless to the source of their amusement. She happened to glance down at herself, to find that her green shirt was now covered in the red paint that she had blasted Wally with earlier. "WALLY!" She screamed, but all that was left of him was the cloud of dust he kicked up as he speed away from his girlfriends' fury.

As Tony laughed with everyone, all he could think of was '_Why are they together?'_ He had been there for a little over a week, helping the team take down a bad guy or 2. Rocket (AN: Don't know how to spell her real name) was very happy to have the new kid status taken from her. During the past week, they had explained to him a lot about their world and personal history, like how they all started dating on the first of the year after a weird fight with their mind-controlled mentors. But he still wondered how the archer and speedster could really be a couple.

Tony's train of thought was interrupted by Batman's voice over the loud-speaker, "Team to the Situation Room (or whatever it's called), Now."

No one wanting to anger Batman, they immediately went for to the room with all the monitors. Batman was watching playbacks of some surveillance footage. Without even looking around, he simply states, "there's been a breakout in Belle Rev." The group tensed at this, though Tony didn't really know how bad that was to their ears.

"What happened? Who got out?" Robin asked, red paint still staining his forehead.

"We're trying to figure out what happened right now. They are just sending us a list of escapees." Batman replied. The images of escapees flashed on the screen with accompanying data. Poison Ivy, Killer Croc, Ultra-Humanite, Mr. Freeze, etc. More than 50 badies out of jail. Tony couldn't recognize any of them, of course. Then a tough looking blonde guy's picture came on the screen and Artemis' face tensed up, in an emotion that was somewhere between fear and rage, more towards rage.

Tony leaned toward the closest person, who happened to be Meagan, and asked quietly, "so who's that guy?"

Meagan answered him with her telepathy, _"Sports-Master. Artemis's dad. She didn't have the best childhood". _

"_Oh"_ Tony conscious thought back. Tony started thinking about Whitney back home and her evil dad. Of course Stane probably didn't do anything physical to Whitney, while he could guess what 'not the best childhood' meant. He hoped Artemis hadn't ever found experimental tech and gone on a psycho rampage though. Now that he thought about it, Artemis actually kinda looked like Whitney. Same hair, same build, same eyes, kinda. Beautiful eyes either way.

"_Wally's gone kill you if he finds out you're thinking about his girlfriend that way," _Meagan mentally joked, as Tony mentally freaked, _"Next time, hang up the mental connection before thinking juicy thoughts."_

"_I'll remember that," _Tony thought, and this time made sure to block out the telepathy. His thoughts started turning, when Batman said, "I've found something." Everyone looked up at the main viewer, which was now rolling a repeating clip of surveillance footage. Their appeared to be nothing for a moment, then quickly a red blur flashed by and then was gone. "Freeze frame" Batman ordered the computer, which paused the video luckily at a frame containing the blur. "Enhance and magnify" The computer did some computery thing and the image enlarged and details went from fuzzy to recognizable. In the middle of Belle Rev Penitentiary was the daemon that got him stuck in this universe.

"It's Transcendent!" Tony spoke aloud. Everyone quickly glanced at Tony then back to the screen.

"You weren't kidding about the demon bit" Wally said trying and failing to lighten the mood.

"So your dimension-hopping daemon is freeing baddies? Why would he do that?" Zatanna put in. Tony just shrugged with an IDK mumble.

"Well, whatever is happening, we need to stop it," Artemis said, determination in her eyes.

"How we gona catch them though?" Connor asked, "I'm sure they'd know to take any trackers off."

"We started lacing the prison food with micro-trackers," Batman said as he put up a satellite view of the area around the Penitentiary, overlaid with red dots, indicating villain whereabouts. "The League is, unfortunately preoccupied," Batman stated, "So we are sending you to deal with the mess of escapees. Think you can handle it?" The Team just stared back at him with determination on their faces.

"We can take 'em" Connor added. So they all got in the bioship and made their way to Louisiana.

**What to do what to do. Keep writing and take upwards of a week to get the next scene done, or publish what I have now, incomplete but ready for eyes. *checks something online* OMG! I haven't updated this since JULY!? OK you guys are not waiting any longer! I'm putting this up now! Hope I don't take another few months to get the next chapter! *crosses fingers***


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